my weekend, as dictated by murphy

we were ready to go. our bags were packed carefully, we were pressed and dressed, and it was time to leave so that we'd arrive at the airport the recommended hour ahead of our flight. it was smooth sailing out of downtown. then, we get into a traffic jam. that was annoying, but we got through it ok (it was a fender bender) and picked up speed again. we had lost about 15 minutes, but were still good to go. about 10 miles up the highway, traffic starts to slow again. i turn on the radio to see what's up and find out that there's an overturned dump truck that spilled sand all over the highway. "you folks on the north freeway are gonna be stuck for a while. all lanes are closed," the newswoman cheerfully told me. screw sand. i can drive through sand. the only problem was that there were about a gazitrillion cars in front of me.

so it takes us about 30 minutes to get past the horrible, bloody sand spill (puh-leeze!) and we are now officially in the danger zone of missing our flight. rabbit drops us off at the terminal and we haul it to the check-in counter. the nice lady called the plane and asked them to wait, but they wouldn't. we missed it. we had to take the next one, scheduled for about an hour and a half later (7:00). that was no biggie - punkin and i were hungry. we sidled up to taco hell (a southern "mexican food" chain, for you yankees - and it's really called taco bell) and ordered us some grub. i was so ready for a nice tall glass of caffeinated diet coke. "we're out," the lady behind the counter who obviously loves her job told me. so I ordered a sprite. "nope, none of that either." by then i was too frazzled to deal, so i took the food and went to a wendy's counter to order the drinks. so what if it took me twice as long to order crappy , yet expensive, fast food at an airport?

we ate and then made our way leisurely to the gate. i looked on the "big board o' numbers" to make sure our 7:00 flight was on time. It said now 8:35. wtf does that mean?? I go ask a c0ntinental employee wtf that means and he smiles and said, "that means your flight is now scheduled to leave at 8:35. they had some trouble in chicago." ok, so the flight was pushed back an hour and a half. ordinarily, i wouldn't care too much. but add in one bored 5-year-old and you have your basic nightmare. we ended up taking off at around 9:05 and got into dallas after 10. the girls didn't get to bed until after midnight and were up at 6:30 the next morning.

other things murphy blessed me with:
1. waking up the first morning in the comfy guest bed and realizing i had started my period 3 days early
2. having to ask my hostess for tampons in front of her husband and their nanny
3. eating too much fruit and stopping up the guest toilet
4. having to ask for a plunger to unstop said guest toilet, again in front of more than one person
5. having our returning flight have to circle the airport because of bad weather for 30 minutes, get low on fuel, have to land at an airport a few miles away (college station for you texans), get gas and other stuff, take off again, and arrive at our destination an hour and a half late

as a result, i am tired and cranky when i hoped to be rested and refreshed. needless to say, c0ntinental will be my last choice in air travel in the future (things like this have happened to me before on that airline) and i will always pack a box of tampons and locate my host's plunger the minute i walk through the door. i don't care if it is 6:30. i'm going to bed before murphy gets more ideas.